At Valley Business & Tech Law, clients work directly with Jesse—not through layers of associates or intermediaries. From the initial conversation through ongoing counsel, he remains personally involved, bringing his experience, judgment, and understanding of each client’s business to every engagement.
This direct relationship creates continuity, responsiveness, and a deeper understanding of the business, allowing legal advice to evolve alongside the organization’s needs.
There is a difference between advising a company and being responsible for helping one operate.
As General Counsel, Jesse wasn’t simply called when a legal issue arose. He worked alongside executives and the teams responsible for finance, sales, operations, technology, human resources, information security and growth.
He has served as General Counsel for an international technology company with operations across five continents, negotiated agreements with some of the world’s largest corporations, and guided organizations through acquisitions, integrations, regulatory change and the legal issues that arise in the ordinary course of doing business.
That experience required more than identifying legal risk. It meant balancing that risk against business objectives, competing priorities, operational realities and decisions that rarely come with perfect information.
It is the perspective Jesse brings to his clients today.
He doesn’t approach a legal question in isolation. He works to understand the business behind it – what the organization is trying to accomplish, what truly matters, where meaningful risk exists, and what options will allow its leaders to move forward.
Jesse is also a teacher.
He serves as an adjunct professor at San Joaquin College of Law, where he teaches Corporations Law and Data Privacy Law, and as an MBA lecturer at California State University, Fresno, teaching the Regulatory and Ethical Environment of Business.
Teaching reinforces something fundamental to Jesse’s approach to practicing law: good counsel shouldn’t simply provide an answer. It should help a client understand the issue well enough to make a better decision.
That means explaining complex legal concepts in practical terms. Putting risk into context. Identifying meaningful alternatives. And helping clients understand the implications of each path forward.
The objective isn’t to demonstrate how complicated the law can be.
It’s to make the complicated understandable.
Jesse’s career has placed him at the center of issues that increasingly overlap. His experience spans corporate governance and fiduciary duties, complex commercial agreements, mergers and acquisitions, employment matters, international operations, regulatory compliance, data privacy and technology.
As General Counsel of international and private-equity-owned technology companies, he advised executive teams while working across virtually every business function. Earlier in his career with the American Arbitration Association, he managed hundreds of complex commercial and technology matters involving billions of dollars in claims.
Today, Jesse also advises organizations navigating rapidly developing issues involving data privacy, artificial intelligence and the governance structures surrounding emerging technology.
The common thread isn’t a particular industry, transaction or technology. It’s helping organizations make sound decisions where business objectives, legal obligations, technology and risk intersect.
Jesse’s understanding of governance isn’t limited to advising boards.
He has served on and led boards and board committees across education, healthcare, arts and nonprofit organizations, with responsibilities involving financial and investment oversight, executive personnel matters, organizational strategy and fiduciary stewardship.
That experience gives Jesse firsthand insight into the questions directors and executives routinely confront.
Who has authority to make the decision? What duties are owed? What information should the board receive? Where does management’s role end and the board’s begin? How should competing interests be evaluated? And how should an organization govern and document consequential decisions?
Jesse brings that perspective to his work with corporations, nonprofit organizations, boards and their leaders – helping establish governance structures that provide clarity, accountability and a sound framework for decision-making.
Jesse founded Valley Business Tech & Law to provide businesses and their leaders with something closer to the counsel he delivered from inside the companies he served.
Counsel that understands the organization.
Counsel that sees beyond the immediate legal question.
Counsel that explains not only what the law says, but why it matters to the decision at hand.
And counsel that helps leaders translate analysis into action.
Whether serving as Outside General Counsel, advising a board, negotiating a significant agreement, structuring a transaction or helping an organization navigate an emerging issue involving privacy or artificial intelligence, Jesse’s approach remains the same:
Founder & Attorney, Valley Business Tech & Law
Former General Counsel & Chief Compliance Officer
Adjunct Professor of Law, San Joaquin College of Law
MBA Lecturer, California State University, Fresno
Licensed to Practice Law in California
Columbia Business School
Digital Business Strategy & Leadership
San Joaquin College of Law
Juris Doctor
Harvard University
Graduate Studies, Composition & Writing
California State University, Fresno
B.A., Mass Communication & Journalism
Board Chair – Arte Américas
Finance & Investment
Committee Chair and Board
Member – United Way Fresno and Madera Counties
Board Member & Personnel Committee – San Joaquin College of Law
President’s Advisory Board – California State University, Fresno
Mission and Community Benefit Committee – Saint Agnes Medical Center
Member, Privacy Section – California Lawyers Association
Member – International Association of Privacy Professionals
